The Republican national security establishment snubbed Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump and shifted to favor Sen. [crscore]Marco Rubio[/crscore].
This shift will be finalized next Monday when Rubio announces his National Security Advisory Council to compensate for poor performance on Super Tuesday. Experts from other campaigns, even with vast divergences in opinion, have decided Rubio represents the best exemplar of a foreign policy platform, since they deem the platform both conservative and internationalist, Bloomberg View reports.
The council will come just a day before the March 15 primaries, which is when Rubio will push as hard as he can to capture his own state of Florida.
“The National Security Advisory Council will provide strategic advice to Marco and to the campaign regarding foreign policy, defense, intelligence and homeland security issues,” Rubio spokesman Alex Conant told Bloomberg View. “The group will lend their considerable expertise to Marco’s efforts to make the case for American leadership in an increasingly uncertain world.”
Several names on the council have already emerged: former Undersecretary of Defense Michael Chertoff, former Department of State official Dov Zakheim and former U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Kristen Silverberg.
Over 100 foreign policy experts have savaged Trump through an open letter decrying his inconsistent policies and arguing real estate acumen doesn’t make up for his lack of security policy experience.
Chertoff, Zakheim and Silverberg have attached their names to the anti-Trump letter.
But perhaps the most controversial facet of Trump’s foreign policy platform has been statements he plans to utilize worse methods of torture than waterboarding and kill family members of terrorists.
Trump has since walked back and distanced himself from outright endorsing policies that violate international agreements like the Geneva Convention. Commentators like former CIA Director Michael Hayden have said the military would flat-out disobey any orders from Trump that move far beyond these limits. Trump shot back and insisted the military would follow his commands because he displays real leadership. He later told The Wall Street Journal that while he will use the full extent of the law to crush terrorism, he won’t actually order troops to violate international agreements.
Although foreign policy ranks highly among GOP voters, establishment figures in this election cycle don’t seem to hold much water and have been tossed aside in favor of figures like Trump, who is perceived by voters as an alternative to business as usual.
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